Happy weekend everyone. Hope everyone is healthy and not going too stir crazy.
We finally have the sun after 2 wet days. I just got back from a nice long morning walk down the road with the hubby and the dogs. Lots of signs of spring are showing now.
The very last patch of snow in my yard (or anyplace I can see) melted Thursday.
I've got crocuses blooming in today's sun. Hurrah!
And even though we had frost the other night, there was this cool view on my skylight.
And these little yellow flowers were blooming on the side of the road. Not sure what they are.
I have my sliding door open right now and think I might be able to sit outside and read today for a bit. I need to rake my gardens some more, but will give it a day to dry up from all the rain.
This past week I baked some peanut butter cookies and made a loaf of sourdough bread.
Good thing I should be able to walk this weekend.
More news on the teaching front too. We got a survey this week from our superintendent about whether to have our late April break or cancel it and get out a week earlier in June. 94% of people voted to cancel it (myself included) so now June 10 is the last day with kids. I can officially say 9 school weeks until retirement. (But who expected this to end my teaching career?)
Contingency plans are being put into place in case we don't return to school for the rest of the year- I really think that is going to end up happening but no one is calling it yet. I feel really bad for our high school seniors who have been looking forward to prom, senior week and graduation. I don't know what they plan to do about any of this, if the administration even know right now.
And some of you asked about students and computers. Our district (starting last year) gives kids a chromebook to use when they are freshmen/grade 9. We also had some general school chromebooks to supply to any other kid who didn't have a computer to access. We can't control their home internet, but we can control that they have the equipment. And the district I work in has set up some internet hotspots around town for those who don't have internet. One reason our district can do that is that unlike parts of the US that have huge school districts, we have more locally controlled schools. Districts are usually 1 city or town or maybe a few that have banded together. I work in a small city district, and we have 4 connecting towns that tuition their kids into the high school and in some cases the middle school. Two of those tuitioning towns are very small with under 50 kids in their elementary schools. One of those towns is what you would call a typical New Hampshire town, and the last town that tuitions in is a fairly wealthy community. So the high school I work at has everything from the poverty level to very well off and has around 1100 kids total. ( I can't image what those school with no computers are doing for out of school learning and how the teachers are doing packets. Our school has been sanitized and we aren't even allowed in right now without a custodial escort because they must sanitize parts of our rooms if we go in.)
OK, enough babbling. I have a few more pages from my New Mexico travel journal to share.
I liked this travel magazine quote and the clouds. And below, I wanted to paint a page (or try to at least) to represent my climb up to the sacred kiva at Bandelier National Monument.
One place I love to go while visiting our friends is to this resort as you can see on the right page. You can pay just to go soak in the waters and that isn't very expensive. It is very relaxing and a nice way to be outside on a cooler day, as all the waters are from a natural hot spring. The day we went it reached 36 degrees Fahrenheit. (About 2 degrees C). It was a little cold walking from pool to pool, but nice to soak. And because it was cold, hardly anyone was there.
On the right is a free postcard I picked up and I cut out the burrow photo from a free magazine. Santa Fe is the city of burrows. Not that they are wandering around the city, but it was back when the city began in the early 1600's.
And finally for today, here is a page with some cool circles from an organic chemistry overlay I had in my stash. (right side). On the left are some rectangular magazine and other item cutouts.
I am going to link this page to Valerie's geometric challenge at Art Journal Journey
OK, enough from me. Hope everyone has a great weekend.
And finally for today, here is a page with some cool circles from an organic chemistry overlay I had in my stash. (right side). On the left are some rectangular magazine and other item cutouts.
OK, enough from me. Hope everyone has a great weekend.
13 comments:
Happy Saturday-I really enjoyed reading your post-glad you got some warmer weather-our weekend turned really cold-but out west they got bitter cold and snow so not complaining-not too much haha.
Someone on facebook suggested that if you live near an outdoor theater-one could have a graduation ceremony that way, or some place with a large parking lot-so everyone is in their cars-there has gotta be way for their graduation-can party later when the virus is over. I feel for those students.
Loving your travel journals-geometric is a real challenge for me so I need to think about what I can do for that-Happy weekend-your baked goods look delicious hugs Kathy
Hi Erika, glad you got it for a walk together. That's a really cool frost photo. We had frost in the night, too, but now it's warming up again. Love your journal pages, you will enjoy looking back in years to come. Thanks for creating the beautiful geometric page for AJJ, much appreciated. Thanks for the insight into what's going on at school, I am sure you never imagined your last weeks of school would be like this. Take care, hugs, Valerie
And I love those cookies!
Our highs the last coupla days have been in the upper 60s and lower 70s F, and it surprises me when I see snow photos. Cool! Your flowers are gorgeous. Clear signs of spring! :)
Your countdown to retiring must be a very different feeling to what you were expecting. Our schools are all closed and there will be no end of year examinations. Teachers will give results based on term work, assessments etc and these will be used for for the students who are hoping to go to university this year. There is no mention here either if/when schools will reopen.
It was good to see the signs of spring with those photos you shared and I'm glad your snow is going away.
Your cookies and bread looked delicious as well, nothing beats the aroma of home baking, I'm sure its there to make us eat more.
Stay safe and well.
Yvonne xxx
Fabulous Photos - Oh, Retirement Is Ever So Close - Stay Strong
Cheers
Thanks for the updates on the school year, Erika, but it is sad that the senior will have to miss our on all the things that usually go along with high school completion. Keeping all healthy and as safe as possible is definitely worth foregoing all those in my opinion. Nice to see the signs of spring in your yard after 2 days of rain this week.
Love your travel journal. You scrapbook so well. I have a friend who also does that and really enjoy looking at hers.
Wonderful, wonderful flowers, though I'm glad we didn't get snow. It's just so inspiring and heartwarming to see the flowers popping up all around. My tulips are glorious :-)
Take care
Cath x
Well, first, I really loved hearing about the teaching and your school system. That's very interesting. It sounds as though you have a good deal of control as a district and that's nice. In Michigan schools are closed now for the entire year. online is supposed to be done but there are great concerns about the inequities of income and internet availability. It's great your district provides the computers and some hot spots. But yes, very hard for the seniors.
And I suspect, hard for you as a retiring teacher. In a different world, they'd probably be having a gathering of some sort and festivities. That will be hard.
Your journal looks just terrific. So fun to relive your trip that way. I love the memorabilia you've added. A fascinating and fun post, Erika!
The little yellow flowers look like dandelions. Jack Frost created a cool scene on your window. Today I'm making a sourdough starter because I've been having trouble finding yeast so could you blog your sourdough bread recipe? I enjoyed your travel journal especially the pages with the clouds and the green alien. Good that your school district will supply students with chromebooks. Himself's college will loan them to students who don't have access to the Internet. WPI is making plans to have a virtual graduation. Too bad the Seniors will have to miss their Senior Week and prom. They will certainly have a senior year to remember. Take care.
Great pages and photos Erika, the sweet treats look yummy!
Hugs,
Alison xx
wonderful images from your walk,pretty flowers too.
fantastic pages you used,beautiful.
i wish you a good new week.
stay safe and well.
hugs jenny
Wonderful pages --- amazing photos! Here it is still cold but gets warmer again from day to day with partly frosty nights. Thank you for sharing the school things. Interesting how this works on your end of the globe!
And yes.. what an end of a schoolk career, unbelievable!
My daughter is thankful that she got her graduation last year as it is very confusing now for this year's graduating classes.
Have a great new week Erika!
Susi xxx
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